Guest opinion: A clean power plan

By Sheila Knerr

Tuesday

Sep 25, 2018 at 4:38 AM

The Proposed “Affordable Clean Energy Rule” is a failure of leadership of the Trump administration.

“Thank you for being Late,” a 2016 book by Thomas Friedman, describes the rapid rise in technology, the globalization of ideas and commerce, and the acceleration of climate change stressing our planet with 7 billion people acting as a “force on nature.” He gives some pretty harrowing examples, but we only have to look at wildfires, droughts, severe storms and melting glaciers to see our own evidence that anthropogenic climate change is real.

Friedman talks about the speed and multiplicity of changes, and the lag in social structures to support people trying to adapt as a major issue. “With so much changing so fast, it’s easier than ever for people to feel a loss of ‘home’ in the deepest sense. They will resist. Many people seem to be looking for someone to put the brakes on change or just give them a simple answer to make their anxiety go away. Addressing that anxiety with imagination and innovation, not scare tactics and simplistic solutions that will not work, is one of today’s great leadership challenges…”

Per Environmentalist Hal Harvey: “It now costs the same to destroy the climate or save it. The price is basically the same, but at the micro scale there will be winners and losers. At the macro scale though, the whole world will win or the whole planet will lose.”

The Clean Air Act, a federal law passed in 1963 designed to control air pollution on a national level, is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency founded in 1970 under Richard Nixon. The mission of the EPA is “to protect human health and the environment.” This act has been amended many times to reflect both the changing understanding of types of pollution and their deleterious effects (including in 2007 to include greenhouse gasses), and the changes in technology which may cross strict boundaries including state lines.

The Clean Power plan, introduced in 2014, aims to reduce CO2 emissions from electrical power generation by 32 percent by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. It focuses on reducing emissions from coal burning plants and increasing the use of renewable energy and energy conservation, requiring states to meet specific standards through a defined group of options that best suits them. It is estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by 415 million tons relative to no action. It has never been enacted. It was challenged in court and the Trump administration delayed court proceedings to allow the EPA to review and make changes to the plan. The EPA now states it believes the plan would be overstepping its regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act.

Recently, Trump introduced his alternative: the Affordable Clean Energy rule: an attempt to replace a bold plan with a weak one. It sets no specific standards for states, allows factories to choose performance standards for efficiency that are essentially meaningless, changes the rules for how factories determine whether a change is a “major modification” subject to a “new source review”, and by its own admission, will cause 470-1,400 premature deaths, 48,000 asthma exacerbations and 21,000 missed work days per year compared to the clean power plan. The EPA projects CO2 emissions would be reduced by an order of magnitude less with this plan versus the Clean Power Plan (27 million vs 415 million tons). It won’t cost as much, if you change the way you do the math and disregard destruction of life and land.

The coal industry will benefit from the new plan, in the short term. The coal workers will probably not. These workers do need support and we would all benefit if we invested in education and training for them to transition to new jobs. Renewable energy is booming and as long as regulations are forward thinking and not designed to hobble up dying industries and inefficient energy transmission, we can all move forward together.

Make your public comment: Reject the “Affordable Energy Rule”, push for the Clean Power Plan. If we need to amend the Clean Air Act again, then urge your representatives to do it. Our planet and our people are worth it. (Docket ID No.EPA- HQ-OAR-2017-0355).

Sheila Knerr is a resident of Chalfont.

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